In an Instagram post mourning his son’s death, Erik Karlsson posted a photo of Axel’s tiny footprints. In the post, Karlsson thanked the city and the team’s fans for their love and support and wrote: “We feel very lucky to be Axel’s parents. Even though he was stillborn, we know we will hold him again one day under different circumstances and the joy he gave us will be with us forever.”

The post garnered more than 10,000 comments, with the overwhelming majority of them expressions of support and sympathy for the couple. However, one comment, posted by user @sandydandy45, stood out: “I feel bad for the baby he didn’t have a chance with Melinda popping pain killer medication everyday.”

It took the league’s top defenceman just seven minutes to respond: “How dare you. You have been making fake accounts and buying hacked ones for months to harass me and my wife but this is an all new low even for you. You are a disgusting person.”

I genuinely felt so bad when I posted that on here. It's something personal and not hockey. I definitely feel less bad now that my source wasn't trolling me. But damn, Hoffman's girlfriend, that is so so low. I don't care how much you dislike someone, that is like wayyyy too far.

And there were some posters, not naming names, who literally looked down on those who expressed concern with the team.

It's even worse than we thought it was. This place is a cesspool at every conceivable level.

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No kidding. And this isn't even necessarily a direct tie to the organization. It's a bat**** psychopath unleashing her fury. Could've happened to anyone. But because it happened the way it did, the level of toxicity has reached critical mass. No amount of buckets in the world will bail this dinghy out from the sheer monsoon of hits it's been taking.